A Grip on Sports: 2022 ended with a bang and not just on the football fields

A GRIP ON SPORTS • A new year? Thank goodness. That last one? Oh boy. It sure ended with a bang, didn’t it? And if we could get our hands on the people who were setting all of them off, we would hold them as our dog shivered and howled in front of them. Maybe then they would understand what their self-absorbed revelry was doing to others.

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• Sorry for the rant. But if you had been in our house last night between about 8:45 – what, we moved to Boston or something? – and 12:40 this morning, you would understand.

Worse than any Fourth of July we can remember. Non-stop booms. OK, they stopped occasionally, but just enough for the old dog to be faked out. By the time midnight hit, he was a wreck. As was his best friend.

Forget that setting off fireworks within the Spokane city limits is a crime. Forget that one is supposed to ring in the New Year at, you know, midnight Pacific time. Forget all that. How about having some consideration for others? Wait, that left us sometime in the past decade.

Oh, well. The poor dog is still afraid to go outside. The loud noises may be gone but his memory of them will stick around for a while.

• We’re moving on. Just like TCU and Georgia.

Last night’s CFP semifinals highlighted all that is right about college football – and all that is wrong. And only took about eight hours.

The right? Unlike the NFL, offense reigns supreme in college. If you have a good quarterback – or a decent one that is hot – and a few receivers, there is always a chance.

Heck, Michigan’s quarterback didn’t play well overall but he still was good enough to give the Wolverines a shot in their 51-45 loss to TCU. And if not for a little help from those adjudicating the game, JJ McCarthy might have led Jim Harbaugh’s team to a national title showdown with top-ranked Georgia.

Michigan came up a yard or two short, the exact amount of real estate the Wolverines were denied after a key second-quarter interception.

We thought something was odd about the spot after Rod Moore intercepted Max Duggan’s pass. But it took ESPN until the second half to show us how wrong. The network took some time to highlight where the interception actually occurred – at the TCU 49-yard-line – and where the ball was spotted – at the Michigan 49. Why was that important? Because McCarthy threw a long pass to toward the end zone that came up a yard short. Even then, the ball was not secured until Roman Wilson was in the end zone. It was ruled a touchdown.

Then replay got involved. Any one see clear-and-convincing evidence that Wilson had secured the ball before the goal line? Neither did we. An overturn shouldn’t have been possible under the current rules. But someone decided to do it anyway.

Huh.

Michigan botched the next play and the six – or seven – points were lost forever.

• Here’s a weird fact about the game. According to the Ann Arbor News, last night’s game was Michigan’s first of the year on grass. If you can call the surface in Glendale that. We just call it jinxed.

• The other game was just plain fun. No botched replays. No weird calls. No defense. Georgia rallied for a 42-41 victory over Ohio State, secured only when the final 50-yard field goal hooked hard left like our first drive of the upcoming golf season.

Can’t say we were sad. Not a big fan of OSU. Nor of Georgia. Nor neither Michigan or TCU for that matter.

A big college football fan? Sure. For all of its ups and downs. All of which were illustrated last night.

• By the way, if you have some time today, you can take a walk down memory lane with the S-R’s sports writers. Sports editor Ralph Walter put together this piece that links the best stories of 2022.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college football, all that is wrong with college football’s administration is highlighted in the discussions the conference had with the Big 12 right after USC and UCLA announced they were leaving for the Big Ten. … Washington gambled a lot this season, which was fun. … No Rose Bowl on this Jan. 1, because it is a Sunday. But tomorrow’s game should feature teams, Utah and Penn State, that are mirror images of each other. … USC faces Tulane in tomorrow’s Cotton Bowl. … UCLA has some things to fix in the offseason. … Oregon State heard some good news Saturday. … In basketball news, fifth-ranked Arizona won the rivalry game in Tempe, playing Arizona State’s game but still prevailing on the road 69-60. … Colorado didn’t, falling apart against the conference’s worst team and losing at California. … Utah is 4-0 in conference following its 71-66 win over host Stanford. … Oregon and Oregon State battled down the stretch with the host Ducks finally prevailing. But the Beavers felt better about themselves when it was over. … It is doubleheader weekend in Washington, which makes today exciting.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs opened West Coast Conference play with a 111-88 win over visiting Pepperdine, their seventh consecutive victory. Jim Meehan handles the game story from the Kennel while Theo Lawson takes care of the difference makers and has this piece on two friends who faced off. … Jesse Tinsley was also in McCarthey and has this photo report. … The folks in the office took care of the recap with highlights. … The women were in the L.A. area and routed Loyola Marymount 96-51. … Elsewhere in the WCC, upsets were all the rage last night, though in this conference there may be no such thing when GU isn’t involved. Saint Mary’s won on the road at Santa Clara 67-64 and San Diego hammered reeling USF 80-68 on the Hilltop. Meanwhile, Pacific stopped visiting Loyola Marymount 78-72 and host BYU cruised past injured Portland 71-58.

EWU: It was great weekend on the road for the Eagle men as they won twice, including Saturday night’s 70-67 victory in Bozeman over Montana State. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Idaho State’s men and women had perfect weekends, with the women winning twice on the road, including last night at Northern Colorado, 63-42. The Bears had a slow start to conference. … Weber State’s men are also 2-0 after topping Northern Arizona 76-60. … Sacramento State opened Big Sky play with a 74-63 win over visiting Portland.

Idaho: The Vandals ended 2022 on a three-game losing streak, the latest 67-56 last night against Montana in Missoula.

Seahawks: The Jets are in Seattle – as long as they didn’t fly Southwest. The Hawks need to win. The rest of the season depends on it. … Seattle is dealing with more injuries.

Mariners: What should we make of the M’s reticence to spend in the offseason? … Like trivia? Then this will be fun for you.

Kraken: Yes, Seattle is slumping.

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• We have the plot of the next Clint Eastwood movie. An angry old man goes around a medium-sized city on New Year’s Eve one year and takes his revenge on all the folks who scared his great-grandson’s dog to death on the Fourth. As the rockets’ red glare happens, he wreaks havoc, all the while his great-grandson raises funds for the Humane Society with Tic-Toc videos of the carnage. Until later …